


Stuck

by RunningRiver05



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, At the same time, Canon Compliant, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Unreliable Narrator, and, doc is a bit of a dick, grian is an unreliable narrator, pardon stress having two tags, sorta - Freeform, tags will be added as fic progresses, the major character death is minecraft so there's respawn, world swapping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:14:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25953547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunningRiver05/pseuds/RunningRiver05
Summary: A HermitCraft/X Life AUShe doesn't know where she is.Surrouded by jungle, in a base that isn't hers, LDShadowLady has somehow gotten herself trapped in HermitCraft.On the other hand, Grian's stuck in X Life. He needs to be careful, and keep himself safe while he tries to get home. Admin magic won't work. Xisuma's tried, and failed.The question is, will they get home? Will they even want to go home?
Relationships: Lizzie Dwyer/Joel | SmallishBeans
Comments: 29
Kudos: 106





	1. Introduction

Fragile. He felt fragile when he woke. 

Pink walls surrounded him, and he felt confused. Nothing felt right, and he could tell that something was off the moment he looked around. 

For starters, this wasn’t his hobbit hole. Quite the opposite, really. The air was light, and easy to breathe. Dry, unlike the jungle air he’d grown accustomed to. The walls surrounding him shouldn’t have been the colour they were, either. Wood wasn’t pink. That wasn’t possible. Sure, Jungle wood had a pinkish tone to it, but pastel pink? No. 

Sitting up properly and looking around, he could definitely tell that this wasn’t his starter base. 

This wasn’t good. 

-

When she woke up, she felt an odd feeling. 

She felt like she was falling endlessly, into a deep pit, as if she were dreaming. She felt like she was sinking into quicksand, and she wasn’t a fan. No thank you. She wanted out of that feeling. 

The feeling of falling, however, and the walls being the wrong colour, made everything worse. The air was too thick and moist for her to breathe, similar to being in the nether, except slightly worse because at least the nether was dry. The air felt moist, and she felt really hot trying to adjust to her new surroundings. 

Standing up and getting out of bed, she looked around, and after spotting a few weapons which weren’t hers, she found a chest stated in a minecart. She knew she shouldn’t peak, but she couldn’t help herself. 

With a peek inside the chest, she found a jungle sapling, with a set of coordinates engraved into one side of it. Knowing that those coordinates were likely her best way of finding someone who could help her, she picked up the abandoned communicator that was at the end of the bed, opened up her current coordinates, and equipted some spare iron armour she found. 

With a stack of food to her name, and this strangers communicator, she took off in search of the saplings’ coordinates. 

-

A knock at the door startled him. 

Scrambling out of bed, he rushed over to the door, disoriented and confused. He wasn’t supposed to be here, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be welcomed by whoever was at the door. Whoever was there, however, was his best chance at finding out where he was, and how he could get home. 

To no one’s surprise, when he opened the door, he saw a stunned look in the brown eyes of a man with brown hair, and before he had time to introduce himself, he was pressed against a wall with a green sword emerald, perhaps?) held to his throat, the wielder of the sword trembling slightly. 

“Who are you, and what have you done to my wife?” The man said, his voice trembling as he demanded to know where his wife was. 

“I’m Grian, and I don’t know where she is!” Grian squeaked out, plastering himself against the wall. He could have sworn he recognised who had spoken to him, although he wasn’t 100% sure. He was too confused and disoriented to be sure, his head foggy. 

“Why are you here, in her house then?” The man asked. 

If Grian had been in a normal, calm state of mind, he would have been more than able to give him a reasonable answer that explained the situation Grian had gotten himself into, but Grian was not in a reasonable state of mind. He was panicked and confused, so he gave a fitting answer. 

“I got teleported here? By magical… stuff?” 

Grian didn’t know what was happening, give him a break. 

“Magical stuff.” The stranger in front of Grian raised an eyebrow, and Grian flinched, expecting to be run through with the weird emerald sword. Instead, the stranger pulled away, giving Grian his freedom. 

“I’m Joel, and you’re in my wife, Lizzie’s base. We’re on the X Life server, although you don’t seem to know what’s happening.” The stranger, Joel, said bluntly. 

X Life. Not HermitCraft. That made a lot of sense. And brought to light a whole bunch of new questions. Grian inwardly laughed. Of course this would happen to him. Why wouldn’t it? 

-

She took a few steps outside of the weird cave building she’d woken in, recognising her surroundings as a jungle. She could hear buzzing, likely from some sort of mob, and she felt slightly unnerved. 

Focusing herself, she checked the coordinates the communicator displayed to her, and after referencing the sapling’s engravings, she took off in a direction. 

And then immediately turned around when she realized she was going the wrong way. 

Before long, she reached the spot that the jungle sapling wanted her to go to. It didn’t look like a typical meeting place however. From the dispensers and buttons everywhere, to the whole thing being exposed to rain, it looked more like some cult meetup, or redstone build without the redstone than any kind of meetup place. 

Naturally, while she looked around and tried to find someone in that area, she fiddled with some of the things. An arrow hit a bell and bounced in her direction when she pressed one button. When she pressed another button, a fire lit on some jungle planks. When she opened a chest, there were cookies which she took, and ate. She was hungry, and cookies tasted better than the dried chicken she had, okay! 

Then something crashed into her from the sky. She landed on the ground, her cheek pressed against the wood, her chest firmly against the ground. She let out a shriek of surprise, hearing her attacker say “Hermit challenges initiation!” in a cheerful tone of voice. Whatever that was supposed to mean. 

“What’s a ‘hermit challenge?’” She asked. The man on top of her finally let her climb to her feet, grinning. His grin dropped slightly, however. 

“Nevermind that, for the moment. Might I ask your name, Miss?” She turned to face him, seeing a moustached man stare at her through curious red eyes. 

“My name is Lizzie. And you are?” She asked, looking back at him. 

“I’m Mumbo Jumbo. Well, right now I’m supposed to be Bumbo Baggins, since me and a friend are ‘hobbits’, but that’s not important right now. How’d you intercept my message to Grian?” The man, Mumbo, asked. 

Lizzie shrugged. “I woke up surrounded by jungle wood, and when I found the sapling, I took it and followed the coordinates. I have no idea how I got here.” She explained. 

Mumbo nodded, looking down thoughtfully. “Perhaps Xisuma might know?” He suggested. “I don’t believe I’ve ever met you before, miss Lizzie.” When she gave him a blank look, no idea to who this Xisuma person was, he seemed to realise that.  
“Ah, right. Well, in a minute, I’ll introduce you to Xisuma, and then we can figure out what’s happening. First, Hermit Challenges Initiation! You initiated yourself. You set fire to that, rang the bell, and ate the cookie. Now, you write down three challenges on those pieces of paper, and put them in the dropper. I’ll write you three challenges, and put them in this dropper. We’ll switch droppers, and dispense a challenge for each other.” Mumbo explained. 

Lizzie nodded, slightly confused. She did as she was told though, putting in challenges that reminded her of her friends. When Mumbo instructed, she walked over to his dropper, and pressed the button. 

“I don’t want to look.” She groaned. Mumbo laughed, reading over his. 

“Kill one million - what? Kill _one million _chickens? By the end of the week?” He looked at her, slightly flabbergasted, and despite herself, Lizzie couldn’t help but giggle.__

__“Yep!” She said. Finally looking down at her own piece of paper, she felt slightly confused. Lizzie looked up at Mumbo._ _

__“How am I supposed to steal all doors for an entire season? I might not be here for very long! Let alone an entire season.” She asked. Mumbo laughed._ _

__“If you do end up staying though, on the off chance that Xisuma can’t get you home, that’s your challenge. Now, to accept, you’ve got to throw the paper into the fire, like this.” Mambo explained, tossing his challenge paper into the fire._ _

__It burnt up in front of them, and, despite herself, she threw her paper into the paper too._ _

__“If I stay for very long, I’ll do your challenge, Mumbo Jumbo.” She grinned. He beamed back at her, and grabbing onto Lizzie’s wrist, started to lead her away._ _

__“Now. To Xisuma’s base!”_ _

__-_ _

__“Joel, I’m not sure what you want me to do. I can’t just _magically _turn him into Lizzie!” The fox hybrid stared into Joel’s eyes, Grian sitting there awkwardly. He shouldn’t be there. He knew that they didn’t want him there either.___ _

____Joel wouldn’t have gone running to this fox man (Callum, Grian recalled. He had remembered where he’d seen Joel now; MCC. Joel he hadn’t spoken too much. Maybe once in passing conversation. Callum, on the other hand, he had spoken to frequently at the events) if they even vaguely wanted him here._ _ _ _

____“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do either. We can’t go to the server admin, since that was Lizzie. If she’s gone, who’s the new one? The system would have transferred it to someone automatically. If it’s someone like Scott, then great! If it’s someone like Oli, however, then what are we supposed to do?” Joel burst out, his head in his hands._ _ _ _

____Grian’s guilt swelled up to the size of the ender dragon. They didn’t want him here. That much was clear._ _ _ _

____Callum must have noticed, because Grian met the fox hybrid’s blue eyes, a sympathetic look on his face. “We’ll get you home, Grian. I promise. It may take a bit of time, but it will happen. None of this is your fault, okay? Just, please have some faith in us.”_ _ _ _

____And maybe things were going to be okay._ _ _ _

____-_ _ _ _

____“You aren’t on the player list.”_ _ _ _

____The man in the helmet, Xisuma, looked over at Lizzie. He looked worried, and rightfully so._ _ _ _

____“What do you mean I’m not on the player list?” Lizzie demanded. She stood up, her hands on the table in front of her, Xisuma diverting his attention back to the control panels that Lizzie was all too familiar with._ _ _ _

____“I can’t find your name, and I can’t find Grian’s either.” Xisuma met Lizzie’s eyes again._ _ _ _

____Beside her, Mumbo frowned. “How does that work though? Shouldn’t Grian still be here, if she’s not here? And if it’s like this here, then what would it be like in her old server? Would she be gone? Assuming Grian’s there, in her place, would neither of them be on that server list too?”_ _ _ _

____Xisuma shrugged. “I’d assume so, although I’m not entirely sure. That does remind me though. What server did you come from, Lizzie? What gamerules were in place?” He asked._ _ _ _

____“It’s a server called X Life. Basically, everyone starts with one heart. You lose that one heart, and you lose that life, and respawn with two, and so on. Once you’ve lost your last few hearts, you’re gone. Banned from the server.” She shrugged. “As for game modes? I’m pretty sure keepinventory was on, and PVP was disabled, but I don’t know what others were on. I was the admin.”_ _ _ _

____“How could you tell the amount of hearts you were on?” Xisuma asked, curiosity in his voice._ _ _ _

____“If you checked your communicator, next to your player name, below coordinates, it shows your heart number. I was on one.” Pulling out the communicator she’d used for coordinate reference, she checked, pointing it out. Lizzie didn’t even question that this was her communicator, or how it got there._ _ _ _

____“There’s a setting you can turn on. When you take damage, it adjusts to fit, since the communicators are linked to you. I think it’s along the same lines as you respawning with them, but I’m not sure.” Lizzie explained. When Mumbo handed over his communicator for Lizzie to demonstrate, she passed it back, the full line of hearts glowing back at her._ _ _ _

____Xisuma peered over Mumbo’s shoulder, his eyes glinting slightly. “You’ll have to teach us how to do that!” He grinned, looking over at Lizzie. She smiled back._ _ _ _

____“Now, what do you think we should do? Do you want to stay here, while we try to locate Grian, and then return home? Or do you want to go straight away?” Xisuma met Lizzie’s eyes, and she shrugged._ _ _ _

____Glancing over at Mumbo, she saw his eyes twinkle, the moustached man mouthing ‘Hermit Challenges’ to her, and she sighed, shaking her head slightly in response. “I’ll stay.” She smiled. Xisuma nodded._ _ _ _

____He pulled out his own communicator, and started to type a message to someone, focusing on the communicator. There was a ding, signalling a response, and Xisuma typed a response back. Looking up, the HermitCraft admin spoke._ _ _ _

____“I’ve asked False to meet us here, at my base. I trust you and False to introduce Lizzie to the Hermits, and take care of her. I’ve asked Joe to come over too. He’ll help me find Grian, and act as the diplomat of the mission.” Xisuma explained. Lizzie nodded, taking it in._ _ _ _

____-_ _ _ _

____“Oli has it.” Scott said, looking up from his communicator._ _ _ _

____Callum cursed, and Joel groaned. “He hasn’t even joined the server yet! How does _he _have admin?” Joel complained.___ _ _ _

______Scott shrugged. “I don’t know, but until we figure it out, and we drag Oli here, we don’t know. I can check if Grian’s on the player list, with the tab list, like everyone else can, but I can’t do anything else. Only Oli can, and he’s not here.” Scott explained._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Then what are we supposed to do?” Joel asked._ _ _ _ _ _

______Callum shrugged. “We could get everyone together, and hold some sort of vote? Maybe Lauren and Jack could go server hopping to find HermitCraft, so we can get Grian home.” He suggested.  
“That could work.” Scott agreed. “And until they find HermitCraft, Grian could stay here. Until he builds his own place, he could stay in Lizzie’s starter base. Does that sound okay with you, Grian?” Scott turned to Grian. _ _ _ _ _ _

______The Hermit nodded, not saying anything. He felt vaguely annoyed that Scott and Joel and Callum were making all his decisions for him, although Grian could understand, considering he’d intruded on their server, and therefore their lives._ _ _ _ _ _

______Hell, he hadn’t seen Scott since MCC! And before that, it had been a while, and if he hadn’t seen Scott, his closest friend on this server, then what could he say about the others? Grian wasn’t sure._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Then it’s settled. Callum, could you help me keep an eye on Grian? I have a suspicion that he’s on our rules now, which means he’s on one heart, and we don’t want him banned if he loses all his lives. Then it’ll be much harder for us to help him get back home.” Scott asked, staring at the fox hybrid._ _ _ _ _ _

______Callum seemed slightly surprised, although he agreed, his tail fluffing up and quivering with slight excitement. He kinda reminded Grian of Ren, everyone’s favourite dog hybrid._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Then it’s settled.” Scott said, standing up._ _ _ _ _ _

______When Callum rose from his seat, Grian followed suit, trailing behind Callum like a lost puppy dog._ _ _ _ _ _

______Hell, at this point Grian _was _a lost puppy dog. He was confused, and lost, and wasn’t where he should have been at home, in HermitCraft. Instead he was here, with old friends he hadn’t spoken to in ages, and a bunch of strangers.___ _ _ _ _ _

________Fun._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Yeah, Grian wasn’t sure he’d have the best time, stuck here._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Lizzie, this is False. False, this is Lizzie.” Mambo nervously introduced the two girls to each other._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Joe had shown up a while ago, and had left with Xisuma after a quick introduction, and only now had False shown up. She seemed nice, if not a little intimidating, and Lizzie was almost certain that she’d get along with False once they had gotten to know each other. Lizzie had made fast friends with Mumbo: why shouldn’t she with the other hermits?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“It’s a pleasure to meet you, False.” Lizzie said, her voice smooth. She once again glanced oer False, who was leaning against a wall, her arms crossed over her chest. False smiled._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“It’s good to meet you too, Lizzie.” False said, and Mumbo beamed, looking somewhat relieved._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Now, should we show you around or something? Would the shopping district work, or..?” False turned to Mumbo, getting right down to business. Mumbo shrugged._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“She’s seen both mine and Grian’s hobbit holes, part of the jungle, and a little bit of the nether, but aside from that, she’s blind to the wonders of season 7.” Mambo explained. Lizzie nodded her confirmation when False glanced over at her, False quickly coming to a decision._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Then we go to the shopping district, and have a look around there. Some of the other Hermits might be around. Who knows?” False grinned. She grabbed a hold of Lizzie’s wrist when she stood up, and with a grin, led Lizzie towards a nether portal, a skip in False’s step._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Lizzie grinned, and Mumbo ran to catch up with them, a smile on his face too._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________This didn’t seem too bad, and Lizzie was sure she’d have fun here._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________That didn’t mean she didn’t want to go home though._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	2. Hermits and crafting, without the crafting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie meets some hermits. Whether they're nice to her or not, is a whole other question.

“Mumbo, who’s your little friend here?” 

Lizzie and her two new friends, Mumbo and False, had scarcely been in the shopping district. Mumbo had just led them through it, holding Lizzie’s hand to guide her. Lizzie hadn’t even received a moment to look around at the mooshroom island, slowly starting to grow with little buildings, and now there was a German voice behind them? 

Mumbo turned around, as did Lizzie, spotting a green person. Well, not person. A creeper person, with some parts of his body made of metal. 

A creeper cyborg hybrid. 

The tattered medicinal coat the creeper hybrid wore was flying in the wind, his arms crossed, and mechanical eye glinting. 

“Oh! Doc! This is Lizzie, a new Hermit! Well, temporary. It’s quite a confusing situation, and I don’t have time to go into the details right now.” Mumbo blabbering on. The creeper hybrid, apparently named Doc, raised an eyebrow. 

“Good news. I have all day, Mumbo.” Doc said. 

Lizzie looked over at False, who was about to step in, and decided no. She was going to step in, and prove that she could take care of herself. She could stand up for herself. 

“What he’s trying to say, is that I’m not comfortable with that story being spread just yet.” Lizzie said. “It’s mine to tell, and Mumbo’s trying to find a polite way to say no, kindly buzz off.” She said, deadpan, staring into Doc’s eyes when he turned to face her. 

Doc took a few steps forwards, towering over her, and Lizzie felt a nervous jump in her stomach. The German intimidated Lizzie, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but she’d be damned if she didn’t stand up for Mumbo! Doc used his mechanical hand to tilt Lizzie’s chin up at him, staring her in the eyes. 

Then he took a few steps backwards. Turning around, he called over his shoulder. “You have some bite, kid.” Then Doc left, fleeing through the nether portal. 

“I’m _not _some kid.” Lizzie muttered bitterly, staring after where Doc had been. She’d only just met him, but she was sure that she didn’t like Doc already. He had a bad attitude, and he honestly scared Lizzie.__

__She generally didn’t want to be friends with someone who scared her._ _

__Mumbo and False just looked worried when Lizzie looked over at them.  
“Doc doesn’t usually act like that, does he?” Mumbo asked, staring at False. _ _

__She shrugged, although Lizzie could see False shake her head slightly. “Not as far as I’m aware. He’s acting the same way as he does with Grian, but I’m not sure. With Grian, it’s obvious that they have a love-hate relationship. That seemed plain cruel.” False said._ _

__Well that didn’t sound good. Lizzie frowned slightly._ _

__Mumbo seemed deep in thought, before he shrugged. “Let’s not focus on that now, shall we? We should probably continue walking around, and trying to find others. Not all the Hermits are like Doc, I promise.” Mumbo said. That last part was directed at Lizzie, she could tell._ _

__“Thanks for the heads up?” She replied, and Mumbo laughed._ _

__“Come on! Let’s continue.” False grinned, skipping over the mycelium floor of the mooshroom biome. Mumbo’s frown turned to a smile, and he held Lizzie’s hand again, following False, over the mycelium. Lizzie let her worries go, skirt rustling against her legs as she walked, a soft breeze picking up. A smile crossed her face as it did, and she closed her eyes momentarily, enjoying the warm breeze._ _

__This was nice. She felt safe here. Sure, Doc was a little scary, but at least she had others like False and Mumbo. Here, there was no threat of too much danger. If she would die, she’d simply respawn, and only need to retrieve stuff. Here, she needn’t worry about her safety. She could play around, and have fun, pranking her new neighbours as she got to know them._ _

__If only Joel were here. Having him by her side would be nice._ _

__Mumbo tugging her along pulled Lizzie from her thoughts, and her eyes opened to meet Mumbo’s red eyes shining, the redstone coloured irises staring ito Lizzie’s own blue ones. Peering behind Mumbo, Lizzie could see that False was talking to another one of the Hermits. Two of them to be precise: a friendly looking man with a mechanical eye, and a shorter woman, with brown hair and rosy cheeks._ _

__Mumbo led Lizzie over to them, False seemingly finishing up on her brief conversation with the two unfamiliar faces._ _

__“Lizzie, this is Iskall, and this is Stress!”_ _

__False wasted no time in introducing the two unfamiliar faces to Lizzie. She politely waved back, and the guy named Iskall gave a very joyful hello, before encasing Lizzie in a hug, Stress simply giggling. Lizzie had let out a started squeak when Iskall smothered her, laughing when he finally let her go._ _

__“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” He grinned, and Lizzie could’t help but catch onto his positivity, grinning back at him. Her eyes shone as she looked at Stress and False, Mumbo also approaching Iskall, standing beside Lizzie. As Stress headed off to talk to False further, Lizzie decided she’d like to talk to Iskall and Mumbo._ _

__“So, I hear you’re not from around here? You weren’t here at the start of the season, so obviously a newcomer.” When Iskall finally noticed Mumbo, he looked vaguely confused. “Oh, and where’s Grian?”_ _

__Mumbo visibly winced at that._ _

__“Oh, yeah, so about that.” He glanced over at Lizzie, almost asking permission to tell Iskall, and Lizzie nodded, giving Mumbo the go ahead._ _

__“Grian’s gone? Not perma dead or anything! Just, temporarily missing. And stuck in whatever place Lizzie came from. We think that they might have swapped, since she woke in Grian’s base, but we aren’t sure. Joe and Xisuma are going to try server hopping or looking in the hum though, while we take care of her. Until we find Grian and Lizzie’s home, she’s going to be a hermit with us!” Mumbo explained, trailing off into a tangent._ _

__Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Basically, Grian and I swapped somehow. I’m here, he’s where I’m supposed to be, and I’ll be staying here until Xisuma can get me back home.” She summarised._ _

__Iskall nodded, about to say something, when his and Mumbo’s communicators buzzed. Iskall checked, and Lizzie peered over Iskall’s shoulder, curious._ _

__

__Xisuma: hey, Mumbo, could you, False and whoever’s with you come to my base? We have a problem_ _

__

__“Would I count?” Iskall asked, looking up from his communicator, meeting eyes with Mumbo who’s also looked up._ _

__“Yeah. You and Stress come too, and obviously Lizzie.” False said, walking over with Stress. She looked between Iskall and Mumbo, meeting Mumbo’s eyes. “I have a bad feeling about this.”_ _

__

__\---_ _

__

__“We’re trapped.”_ _

__That was not what Lizzie wanted to hear. Xisuma was leaning back in his chair, helmet on his desk, his head in his hands. Joe was standing to one side, seated on what Lizzie could only assume was Xisuma’s bed, his hands folded on his lap._ _

__False and Stress were lumped together, while Lizzie was standing with Mumbo and Iskall, and her good mood from earlier had dropped._ _

__“What do you mean by that?” False asked, and Xisuma sighed._ _

__“When Joe and I reached and activated the hub portal, it failed. There was a mechanical voice that told us our access was denied, and it pushed us away, making us both fly into the ocean. We got back here, and we’ve been trying to figure it out, but I don’t know. Nothing in the code will tell me why we can’t access the hub portal.” Xisuma explained, and Lizzie’s heart dropped into her stomach._ _

__“Do you want me to try and comb through it?” She asked. “I was an admin back in X Life, so I might be able to help.” She offered._ _

__Xisuma shrugged. “If you’re willing, but I don’t know. It’s weird. Usually I can root out the problem quickly, but this seems like a bigger issue. Plus, I own the server. I should be able to access those files, but I _can’t _.”___ _

____“So what are we here for?” Lizzie finally asked dully. She knew very well that they weren’t just here for Xisuma to say that he couldn’t leave HermitCraft for a bit, Lizzie knew that much._ _ _ _

____“He’s tryna say you’re stuck here. If we can’t find this X Life place, then we can’t get you home, Elizabeth.” Joe said, speaking up._ _ _ _

____“So you might want to get comfortable with the other hermits, because you’ll be dealing with us for a while.”_ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, sorry for the lack of updates! Inspiration ran dry temporarily, so it's taken me a while to work on this chapter and get it out. As it stands, I hope y'all like it! 
> 
> Also, I've recently learned that Scott is probably the admin for X Life, the main evidence being that Lizzie asked Scott to push the borders back in that one episode where she wanted the flowers (i think?). I will not be editing this to write Scott as the X Life admin, as a portion of Grian's conflict centers around inactive Oli being admin, so please bare this in mind!


	3. Unwelcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian doesn't feel to great. 
> 
> Maybe things are looking up for him though.

Unwelcome. 

He felt so _god damn unwelcome _.__

__It was obvious they didn’t want him here. Especially not Joel. Joel was especially hostile, and every time Grian was around him, Grian could _swear _he saw Joel shoot him a dirty look. Scott seemed fine with him there, if not bit frustrated about this Oli guy having admin and being gone. Scott seemed somewhat happy to have him there, though.___ _

____Maybe Grian was just trying to see something good in his awful situation, maybe he wasn’t._ _ _ _

____Grian wasn’t sure._ _ _ _

____As for the others… well, what he’d seen of them, they didn’t seem to bothered. Not outwardly. Of course, Grian had to think that they probably were. These Jack and Lauren people were sentenced to server hopping (which made Grian wonder if they knew how to access the hub portal), which couldn’t be the best, especially since server hopping was extremely random to where you were sent._ _ _ _

____For all Grian knew, Lauren and Jack could end up trapped in the same world as his high school was._ _ _ _

____And by extension, Sam._ _ _ _

____Grian shuddered upon remembering Sam._ _ _ _

____Either way, he was currently in Lizzie’s base. The moon was high in the air and Grian was failing to fall asleep, tossing and turning constantly. He was aware that Lauren and Jack were supposed to start heading off to server hop tomorrow, and quite frankly, Grian wasn’t sure he could stand staying here, in X Life. Sure, they were trying to provide him a place to live, and stay while he was away from home.  
Their hospitality felt bitter though. _ _ _ _

____Only made Grian feel more and more _unwelcome _.___ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______\---_ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______After a sleepless night, Grian had finally made his mind up._ _ _ _ _ _

______Maybe it was a bad, sleep deprived decision. Grian didn’t know._ _ _ _ _ _

______Didn’t mean he was going to change his mind._ _ _ _ _ _

______Getting up, Grian stretched out, picking up a few of the cooked steaks off to one side. He scooped up the diamond gear he was ‘borrowing’ from Lizzie, pulling the armour on and equipping the weapons. Sword clutched in his hand, he finished off his steak, picked up more, and left the building._ _ _ _ _ _

______He was aware that Lauren, Jack, and a few others would be meeting with Scott before they headed off to server hop, and Grian intended on interrupting that meeting. Well, not so much interrupting._ _ _ _ _ _

______More so, asking to join the server hoppers._ _ _ _ _ _

______Grian knew he was unwelcome here. He knew that they didn’t want him here, and that they’d rather get rid of him as soon as possible._ _ _ _ _ _

______So he was going to help them get rid of them, and take himself off their hands for the most part._ _ _ _ _ _

______Walking up to the stone Joel had showed him helped teleport, he selected the option for spawn, and after a moment of brief motion sickness, Grian popped into Spawn._ _ _ _ _ _

______And, just his luck, he immediately crashed into someone._ _ _ _ _ _

______Someone familiar._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Jimmy?!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______\---_ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______A lot of emotions were whirling around, and Grian wasn’t entirely sure what to think. Jimmy was here?!_ _ _ _ _ _

______Since when?!_ _ _ _ _ _

______Grian was more than startled, his mouth hanging open slightly as he stared at Jimmy, a smile across his old friend’s face. Jimmy and Grian had been friends back in Evo, before Grian had been kidnapped by the watchers._ _ _ _ _ _

______He’d managed to escape, obviously, with Taurtis’ help, but then he’d lost Taurtis. Taurtis had gone missing, and Grian had roamed around the hub server for too long, searching for his friend. Then Xisuma had found him, and offered Grian a place in Hermitcraft._ _ _ _ _ _

______And look where that had placed him._ _ _ _ _ _

______Lost and alone, in a place that made him feel unwelcome._ _ _ _ _ _

______Maybe things would be better now though, since Jimmy was here._ _ _ _ _ _

______“So, Grian, what’d you come for?” Scott finally spoke up, and Grian snapped to attention. Lauren and Jack hadn’t left yet, Jack looking like he wasn’t ready._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Oh, I came to ask if I could maybe go on the server hopping with Lauren and Jack? I just figured that maybe I could try help and identify Hermitcraft. Not that I don’t like you all!” He said, panicking slightly at the end when Scott gave him an offended look._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I just thought I might be of help, since while you may recognise the hermits themselves, from MCC, you haven’t seen the world we’re in. Plus, when we do find Hermitcraft, I can help track down Lizzie via my contacts, assuming she is in Hermitcraft.” Grian rambled._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scott laughed. “That’s a very nice suggestion of you, Grian, and while I’m sure that would be of help, I’m afraid I can’t let you.” Scott said. Grian must’ve looked visibly disappointed, because Scott sighed, walking over and offering Grian a comforting pat on the back._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Normally I’d let you, but we’re on X Life. You’re still on one heart. I’m not sure if it carries over to others servers, via server hopping. I know that if you go via the hub server, it reverts you to however many hearts you need for whatever server you’re joining, but only the admin can open and close the server hub, and I don’t want to take the chances with you.” Scott explained._ _ _ _ _ _

______“We have a plugin that ejects players to our temporary waiting server when they lose all their hearts. You aren’t on the player list though, so I’m not sure if it’d send you to our waiting server. I don’t want to take that chance, Grian.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______That…_ _ _ _ _ _

______That made a surprising amount of sense, actually._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Speaking of which, Jack! You need to fetch your armour to go off with Lauren! It’s already midday.” Scott turned to face Jack, the anthropomorphic mooshroom jumping and turning away from his conversation with Callum._ _ _ _ _ _

______Grian couldn’t help but laugh, and stripping himself of the diamond armour he’d been wearing, along with the tools, he chucked them to Jack. “I’ll need payment back for those!” Grian joked._ _ _ _ _ _

______Jack grinned back at Grian, pulling on the armour and equipping the tools, while Scott rolled his eyes, shooting a thankful glance in Grian’s direction._ _ _ _ _ _

______Grian accidentally ignored Scott, instead meeting Jimmy’s eyes, who warmly winked at Grian, and he grinned again._ _ _ _ _ _

______Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad._ _ _ _ _ _

______Maybe Grian wouldn’t feel so unwelcome anymore, now he knew that Jimmy was here._ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Faster updates should be coming along soon! 
> 
> Also, longer chapters after this. Grian chapters are slightly harder to write, since I don't know how to write a largish amount of the people in X Life. :]


	4. Not everyone's like Doc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie makes new friends! She's settling in well, it seems.

Team ZIT were a surprising amount of fun to hang around. 

Lizzie had been walking through the shopping district, Mumbo by her side. They’d been discussing The Barge, Grian’s shop, and Lizzie planned on taking it over. She also wanted to take the chance to learn more about redstone, from Mumbo, Etho, Xisuma, and as many redstone hermits as she possibly could. 

False was taking a break at that moment, catching up with Stress, Lizzie remembered. So Mumbo was stuck with Lizzie. 

He had his hands in his pant pockets, Lizzie snuggled down into his suit coat. 

Since arriving, she only _really _had enough clothes for the one day. So with some help from Cleo, a master sewer, and volunteered clothes from the hermits, Lizzie had put together a small outfit that she could replicate or wash easily.__

__A white shirt from Stress, Mumbo’s suit jacket, a pair of Grian’s pants, and her familiar tie turned into a scarf were all included._ _

__She wondered if Grian had done the same, assuming he was in X Life. It would make logical sense, but Lizzie wasn’t entirely sure._ _

__Lizzie had seen Zedaph, Impulse and Tango close to Zedaph’s shop. A statue, which somewhat resembled him. His violet eyes glinted at her from his seat on top of the statue, as she and Mumbo approached, Impulse and Tango hanging around the area._ _

__Tango and Impulse were beside it, seated on the mycelium ground, chattering. When Mumbo and Lizzie walked up, she waved at them, Mumbo greeting them by name._ _

__That’s how Lizzie came to know said names, after all._ _

__“Hey Zed! Tango! Impulse!” Mumbo had said. Zedaph had jumped off the top of his statue, landing on top of Tango with a thump, who yelped._ _

__“Zedaph!” Tango had shrieked, Zed letting out a laugh as he let Tango to his feet._ _

__“Tango.” Zed said Tango’s name back, in response to Tango saying his name._ _

__“Impulse.” Impulse finally chimed in, a grin on his face when Tango and Zedaph turned to face him._ _

__Lizzie grinned at hearing them interact._ _

__“So, Mumbo. How’ve you been?” Tango finally turned the attention onto Mumbo and Lizzie, a startled look on Mumbo’s face when Tango spoke to him._ _

__“Oh, just peachy!” He said, clearly startled. Lizzie laughed, and team ZIT turned to her._ _

__“Might I ask your name, miss?” Zedaph asked._ _

__“You may indeed.” Lizzie joked. Impulse and the others laughed._ _

__“I’m Lizzie. Gonna be hanging around for a while, so be prepared to deal with me for longer.” She said, moving so she could lean against the Zedaph statue._ _

__“Oh, cool!” Tango said. He perched himself in top of a two high dirt stack, sitting to look down at everyone else. Zedaph grinned at Lizzie, and Impulse smiled._ _

__“Well, it’s good to meet you! When’d Xisuma send you the invite? I don’t think you were with us at the start of the season.” Impulse asked, and Lizzie’s heart skipped a beat. She exchanged a look with Mumbo, before coming up with a lie on the spot._ _

__“After the season started.” She said. False or Cleo or Stress must’ve said something about wanting another girl on the server, because he contacted me a few weeks ago.” Lizzie came up with.  
Impulse, Tango and Zedaph must have bought her story, because they didn’t question it. _ _

__“Oh, cool! So, are you liking HermitCraft? It’s pretty overwhelming if you aren’t used to it, but isn’t everything?” Tango said._ _

__Lizzie shrugged. “It’s… interesting.” She said._ _

__When she saw the worried, and startled looks on their faces, she laughed._ _

__“All jokes aside, it’s amazing. I never thought anyone could be so good at building, or redstone, but here we are.” She said._ _

__Zedaph broke out into a grin, his eyes lighting up._ _

__“Oh, you should come see my base! The Cave of Contraptions is really cool.” Zedaph said, his voice clearly showing his excitement. Lizzie could see Tango glance at her, then at Zed, shooting the later a fond look._ _

__And honestly?_ _

__Lizzie was sold. Zedaph seemed so excited, and Lizzie would hate to deny him the pleasure of showing her around this cave of his._ _

__“Sounds fun! Could you show me around?” She asked, grinning when Zedaph clapped is hands together a few times._ _

__“Of course!” He grinned._ _

__Looking between the other three, she could see that Tango, Impulse and Mumbo were all pleased to._ _

__“Do you mind if I leave you with them?” Mumbo asked, and Lizzie shook her head._ _

__“Feel free to go do chores or whatever.” She said. Mumbo nodded, and with a wave goodbye, he went off, headed off in the direction of the diamond pile._ _

__The diamond pile Lizzie _may _or _may not _have already come up with some ideas about._____ _

______That was for another day though._ _ _ _ _ _

______Taking Lizzie by the hand, Zedaph flew up into the air using his elytra, Lizzie following using her own (which she was gifted from Iskall). She fired a few rockets to keep up, hearing more behind her, so she assumed that Impulse and/or Tango were behind her._ _ _ _ _ _

______She was proved right when the landed, Tango and Impulse shortly behind. Impulse stayed in the air though, fidgeting._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I might have to go. I think Bdubs wanted my help on something? But I’m not sure.” Impulse said._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Will you three be alright?” He asked. Lizzie nodded, as did Zedaph. Tango shrugged._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You never know, when I’m around.” Tango said. Impulse and Zedaph laughed._ _ _ _ _ _

______“True.” Zed said._ _ _ _ _ _

______Impulse cracked a smile. “Be careful with these two, Lizzie!” He warned. Then Impulse took off, flying into the air with a few rockets._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Now, there’s not _that much _, but I’m working on it!” Zedaph said. Lizzie nodded, and after taking her hand in his, Zedaph pressed the button to lead him and Lizzie through the door.___ _ _ _ _ _

________As they stepped in, Tango was just behind them, the door closing on him. With a sigh, Tango opened the door again and entered, although Zedaph was already showing off some of his contraptions._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The one he seemed most proud of was the sun and moon cycle, which had been fixed up semi-recently. Lizzie’s personal favourite was the pool of water that filled a bucket up without you needing to do it by hand._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Oh yeah!”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________After Lizzie was showed all the different contraptions, Tango staying quiet while that happened, Tango spoke up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“How would you two like to help me test a game I’ve been working on?” He asked. Lizzie perked up._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“A game?” Zedaph echoed, confused._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Tango nodded. “It’s called decked out. Basically, there’s an arena, which will have different locations, and redstone wired throughout. In that arena, if you have a compass, you can find different boxes with loot, and different cards. If you get out with them alive, then great! If not, oh well.” Tango explained. “It’s basically a trading card game, with extra steps. And death. A lot more death. The arena will be guarded with ravagers.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Lizzie had to stop herself from physically recoiling at the idea of a death game. Maybe her brain was still wired on X Life setting though._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Sounds like fun! I’m happy to help test.” Zedaph said. When Tango turned to Lizzie, she took a deep breath, and nodded. She could put aside her X life wired brain to help Tango with his game._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Besides, if Zedaph was willing to help test Decked Out, how bad could it really be?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new HC/X Life AU! The first fanfic I've written that's been edited, and hopefully won't be error riddled lmao. I do apologise for any times that Mumbo's name might hae been spelt as Mambo though. Docs kept autocorrecting it.
> 
> If you've come from Tumblr, welcome! Y'all already have a vague idea to the AU, considering I made a post about it a few days ago. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed!


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